Looking for VR Recommendations and Advice

[1Wolf]

Hello.  Its been a few years since I've been able to enjoy DCS.  I used to play on the Oculus Rift CV1 and once I'd experienced VR in DCS I just wasn't interested in DCS if I wasn't playing in VR.  However, my system was pretty old and wasn't doing well.  Frame rates were pretty low, I had to turn down too much detail and had to make too many compromises, and then the updates to the Oculus were driving me crazy so I just stopped.

 

I recently started putting together a brand new system and I'm looking forward to DCS in VR once again and started looking into getting a new VR setup.

 

What is the best VR headset for DCS?  I don't want anything to do with anything Oculus or Facebook related.  They can take a long walk off a short pier.  So what is best in DCS?  HP Reverb G2?  Valve Index?  I've read several reviews of VR headsets but the best place to find out which headset looks and feels best in DCS is to ask right here.

 

Thanks!

[nobuttons]

Can your rig handle G2/are you on a budget? If yes, then $600 is an insane value for modern quality seated VR.

 

OR

 

Do you want all kinds of VR and DCS is only one usecase? Consider also Index. There are reasonable reasons why reasonable people might choose one or the other.

 

OR

Is money no object and you've already dumped at least $5K into your current PC and probably at least half of that into your HOTAS/simpit? Then consider Pimax 8K X. It's a Lamborghini of headsets (over priced, shitty comfort, broken half the time, requires ridiculous amounts of extra care and love by you, almost never used to it's potential, but OMG when it goes it GOES).  

Edited March 16, 2021 by nobuttons

[markentius]

I started with the CV1 as well and switched to the Reverb G2 in Feb. I use VR for DCS and ACC and absolutely love the clarity and colors of the G2. 

What's your new setup like? Mine is i7 9700K/32Gb 3200/2080 Super and if you're looking for performance and visual quality my setup is the minimum spec as it will require a lot of tweaking to get right. 

 

So my advice, as I'm pretty biased  is to go for the G2 as it is superb! 

 

Hope this helps

[Branston]

Agree 100% with markentius. HP Reverb G2 is great for DCS and Il2 Sturmovik. Just make sure your system is up to spec. I upgraded to a high end Chillblast VR rig which has made the whole experience pretty trouble free. There are also some good posts on DCS forums with info on how to set it up.

 

One major plus for me was that it had to be compatible with wearing glasses/spectacles, and the G2 has proved to be perfect.

 

Go for it! 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Branston
remembered about wearing glasses

[dburne]

Another vote for Reverb G2. Loving mine.

[kurtz667]

I would really want to try the g2. But my pc is just on min specs for it. The prices of gpu's in europe are insane atm. I'm talking 2900 euros for a 3090. 1300 for a 3080. The g2 is only 640 though. Should i bother buying it with a 8700 k/1080ti? Or should i stick with the rift-s for now? 

Edited March 16, 2021 by kurtz667

[Tshark]

I have owned my Reverb G2 and love it for DCS.  I am running a RTX 2070 card and I like the picture/performance.  It is a lot of money for VR and there are many questions (system capability, comfort, eyeglass accommodation, etc.) that can only be answered by actually trying it out yourself.  I suggest you find a retailer that has a 30-day no question refund policy.  I was able to find this through Walmart, but Amazon and the Microsoft store also have the same policy.

[markentius]

1 hour ago, kurtz667 said:

I would really want to try the g2. But my pc is just on min specs for it. The prices of gpu's in europe are insane atm. I'm talking 2900 euros for a 3090. 1300 for a 3080. The g2 is only 640 though. Should i bother buying it with a 8700 k/1080ti? Or should i stick with the rift-s for now? 

 

That's very similar to my spec and I'm really happy with how it looks and how it performs. I'm waiting for prices to come down to upgrade GPU but I'm not in a rush.
 

[kurtz667]

Ok thanks for the info, i might have to pull the trigger then

[1Wolf]

Thanks for all the replies and responses so far!  Its greatly appreciated.

 

11 hours ago, nobuttons said:

Can your rig handle G2/are you on a budget? If yes, then $600 is an insane value for modern quality seated VR.

 

OR

 

Do you want all kinds of VR and DCS is only one usecase? Consider also Index. There are reasonable reasons why reasonable people might choose one or the other.

 

OR

Is money no object and you've already dumped at least $5K into your current PC and probably at least half of that into your HOTAS/simpit? Then consider Pimax 8K X. It's a Lamborghini of headsets (over priced, shitty comfort, broken half the time, requires ridiculous amounts of extra care and love by you, almost never used to it's potential, but OMG when it goes it GOES).  

 

 

Rig can handle G3 (Specs of the rig are below in another reply).

 

DCS and other flight sims (Such as perhaps MSFS 2020) would be the main use case.  Flight Sims are the one thing I just won't touch outside of VR any longer.  Most other games I play on just a traditional monitor.  However, there are probably other VR titles that I'd like to play as well.  I guess I'd say that my flight sim VR use would be more "dedicated" and that my non flight-sim VR use would be more "casual".  Usually, if I'm not playing a VR flight sim and I'm playing some other sort of game I'd much rather be able to relax and be comfy and just play on a monitor with mouse and keyboard.

 

Yup, my current PC I just built cost a small fortune.  I've got a Warthog HOTAS setup and an Obutto Chair (Which I can't use any longer because its packed in storage).  I'm one of those who has been fighting the "get enough horsepower to power my flight sims" game for a very long time.  I started out with Falcon Northwest PC's back in the 90's with Falcon 3.0 from Spectrum Holobyte.  Then came Alienware PC's.  For the past many years I've preferred to "roll my own" to get the performance I want on a PC tailored to my own uses.  However, with regards to how you describe the Pimax 8K...that thing sounds like it would drive me nuts.  I only have a few precious hours here and there to really enjoy a flight sim so having to futz around with too much, be uncomfortable, and put in tons of extra effort and care would suck...lol.

 

Also, comfort is very important to me.

 

8 hours ago, markentius said:

I started with the CV1 as well and switched to the Reverb G2 in Feb. I use VR for DCS and ACC and absolutely love the clarity and colors of the G2. 

What's your new setup like? Mine is i7 9700K/32Gb 3200/2080 Super and if you're looking for performance and visual quality my setup is the minimum spec as it will require a lot of tweaking to get right. 

 

So my advice, as I'm pretty biased  is to go for the G2 as it is superb! 

 

Hope this helps

 

That helps alot Markentius   Thank you!

 

You guessed correctly on what I'm looking for - always performance and visual quality.  It costs alot but time is money and I'd rather spend the money on the machine and just be able to crank up the detail levers and knobs, set it and forget it, and enjoy....rather then spending so much time tweaking and fiddling with turning things down.  Thats actually why I quit DCS with my Oculus CV1.  After a few rounds of DCS updates it just got to the point where it took alot of tweaking to get decent FPS and at least somewhere in the neighborhood of decent visuals.  I was getting to the point I was doing more tweaking then having fun.  The system was 10 years old though so I got alot of use out of it.

 

As far as my current setup (which I have all the parts but I'm still in the process of building)...

AMD 5950X

64 Gigs RAM

3090

 

6 hours ago, Branston said:

Agree 100% with markentius. HP Reverb G2 is great for DCS and Il2 Sturmovik. Just make sure your system is up to spec. I upgraded to a high end Chillblast VR rig which has made the whole experience pretty trouble free. There are also some good posts on DCS forums with info on how to set it up.

 

One major plus for me was that it had to be compatible with wearing glasses/spectacles, and the G2 has proved to be perfect.

 

Go for it! 

 

 

I do wear glasses and I've always worn my Oculus CV1 right over the top of them.  It wasn't ideal but it worked.  I never tried any of the aftermarket solutions.  It wasn't bad except that my glasses would fog up sometimes in the Oculus.  When I started in VR I wore contacts but, unfortunately, as my eyes got older I can't wear them any more.  I can only wear glasses now.

 

So that's a really good point Branston....I'd need to make sure that the VR setup plays nicely with eyeglasses.

 

 

[VampireNZ]

Have had Oculus CV1 & CV2 and now have Reverb G2 - the G2 is awesome! Even at lower res to keep the frames up (6800XT & 5900X) the image quality is superb with next-to-no screen door etc. You should get a few more frames with the 3090, the 5950 won't gain much over a 5900 thou in DCS, but my CPU frametime comfortably sits below 10ms most of the time.

 

As far as glasses go, I previously used the prescription inserts in the CV1 & CV2, but found there is heaps of room in the G2 and just wear it over my current glasses no problems at all. FOV has never been a bug-bear of mine in VR so don't mind the screens are a bit further from my face. The convenience of just placing the headset over glasses and tilting head strap down over back of head is great. Obviously this will depend on the size/shape of your glasses frame, but I don't even notice I am wearing them in VR.

[ShaunX]

You will not be disapointed. I recently upgraded to a 5900X with an Asus Strix 3090 and the G2 is amazing.

 

That said, make sure you firstly study and apply all of the suggested optimisations in  Speed-of-Heat's post . It is really worth doing, even with your spec.

 

Also, assuming your 5950X is on a x570 motherboard you may experience a problem a lot of us have had, in which the G2 will not work (or will work badly)  via some or ALL of the x570's USB 3 ports. In my case it wouldn't work on ANY of them. This is a known issue that HP and AMD are apparently working to resolve with a BIOS update. It's easily solved by using an external USB 3, or installing a USB 3 card.

 

I also invested in a pair of prescription lenses from widmovr (VR optician also do them). These individual lenses are designed to fit perfectly over the headset lenses. Personally, I find these give me a better experience both in terms of comfort and clarity than wearing my specs (and no fogging!)

 

 

[Brainfreeze]

2 hours ago, 1Wolf said:

 

Rig can handle G3 (Specs of the rig are below in another reply).

Hahahaha.   Think again. There is no rig that can handle the current DCS (before they give us more with 2.7 and then more...) in VR as you would like it to.  But with your specs and a G2 you'll certainly be quite happy with it...for a while  

[markentius]

15 hours ago, 1Wolf said:

Thanks for all the replies and responses so far!  Its greatly appreciated.

 

 

Rig can handle G3 (Specs of the rig are below in another reply).

 

DCS and other flight sims (Such as perhaps MSFS 2020) would be the main use case.  Flight Sims are the one thing I just won't touch outside of VR any longer.  Most other games I play on just a traditional monitor.  However, there are probably other VR titles that I'd like to play as well.  I guess I'd say that my flight sim VR use would be more "dedicated" and that my non flight-sim VR use would be more "casual".  Usually, if I'm not playing a VR flight sim and I'm playing some other sort of game I'd much rather be able to relax and be comfy and just play on a monitor with mouse and keyboard.

 

Yup, my current PC I just built cost a small fortune.  I've got a Warthog HOTAS setup and an Obutto Chair (Which I can't use any longer because its packed in storage).  I'm one of those who has been fighting the "get enough horsepower to power my flight sims" game for a very long time.  I started out with Falcon Northwest PC's back in the 90's with Falcon 3.0 from Spectrum Holobyte.  Then came Alienware PC's.  For the past many years I've preferred to "roll my own" to get the performance I want on a PC tailored to my own uses.  However, with regards to how you describe the Pimax 8K...that thing sounds like it would drive me nuts.  I only have a few precious hours here and there to really enjoy a flight sim so having to futz around with too much, be uncomfortable, and put in tons of extra effort and care would suck...lol.

 

Also, comfort is very important to me.

 

 

That helps alot Markentius   Thank you!

 

You guessed correctly on what I'm looking for - always performance and visual quality.  It costs alot but time is money and I'd rather spend the money on the machine and just be able to crank up the detail levers and knobs, set it and forget it, and enjoy....rather then spending so much time tweaking and fiddling with turning things down.  Thats actually why I quit DCS with my Oculus CV1.  After a few rounds of DCS updates it just got to the point where it took alot of tweaking to get decent FPS and at least somewhere in the neighborhood of decent visuals.  I was getting to the point I was doing more tweaking then having fun.  The system was 10 years old though so I got alot of use out of it.

 

As far as my current setup (which I have all the parts but I'm still in the process of building)...

AMD 5950X

64 Gigs RAM

3090

 

 

I do wear glasses and I've always worn my Oculus CV1 right over the top of them.  It wasn't ideal but it worked.  I never tried any of the aftermarket solutions.  It wasn't bad except that my glasses would fog up sometimes in the Oculus.  When I started in VR I wore contacts but, unfortunately, as my eyes got older I can't wear them any more.  I can only wear glasses now.

 

So that's a really good point Branston....I'd need to make sure that the VR setup plays nicely with eyeglasses.

 

 

You won't be needing to tweak too much with a 3090

[PicklePicklePickle]

I'm going to be in the minority now, my experience is evolving every day. I have Index/G2/Pimax 8KX/8K+. I like many things about the G2 and until recently I was convinced it was the headset to get hands down. However, while the G2 was getting repaired I played the Index for a month. After I got the G2 back, yes the sharpness is as amazing as I remember, but the narrow field of view is absolutely jarring now. I have been consistently going back to the Index because I miss it so much.

 

At first I hated the Index base stations, but now that I have the G2 and Index side by side, the Index tracking looks pretty amazing. I now see a lot of little twitches in the G2 tracking that I did not notice before I had the Index. The Index tracking is practically flawless, I can even get up walk around and when I sit back down my head is in the same place in the cockpit. But the G2 tracking is still very good, and not having base stations can indeed be a huge advantage.

 

If I were buying one headset today, it would definitely be between the Index and the G2 though. it would be a toss between the sharpest images and beautiful detailed gauges, or a wider FOV that, in my opnion, makes the air combat experience better. I should add a disclaimer that I am not good enough to play on servers without labels, so maybe once I get there I will find the G2 indispensable.

 

I have to agree with others that in the current state DCS is never going to be a perfect experience with 'Ultra' settings if you have the 'right' machine, like most other games. I threw everything the market has at it short of phase change or liquid nitrogen, and i still have to disable/lower a lot of settings. I get 90fps a lot of the time under the right conditions such as free flight with few AI or above caucasus mountains which for some reason makes everything smoother. But it still micro-stutters and sometimes it really gets framey still.

 

But, hey I preordered an 11900K and that is going to fix everything.  Gotta keep chasing that DCS dragon...